Coarse Diamonds

by Darkonshadows

-68-

After Rover’s act, it was time for Saffron to go on. She had her father come up with her onto stage as she had a bit of stage fright and he was emotional support. They were recognized by a lot of the crowd as the two who helped feed a lot of them. Saffron had been quite busy with trying to make this event work when Rarity brought it up. She was coming into this with only eight hours of sleep, just about the only sleep she has gotten in over the last five days with helping every Antilur Station resident she could. She’s only had three hours of practice for her particular act and she thought she could pull it off.

“Not necessarily a full time troupe member, but she’s becoming a good friend of mine regardless and her cooking has been lifting your spirits since she came onto the station. I introduce to you, Saffron Masala, chef of tasty treats and here to perform her act and she is a knife throwing connoisseur!” Waving a hoof the mare’s direction, Trapeze moved off to the side and Coriander did the same.

“Who’s hungry for some fun? For my act I have these three totems with targets affixed to them, there are nine targets in all. There’s one at the top, middle and bottom of each totem.” Said totems had been set up on the stage at least five feet from each other and they were about half a foot in diameter. The targets on them were quite small about five inch wide circles. The totems each had a representative of each pony race and each totem had a different top, middle and bottom representative of all three races on them. “On me I have nine knives and I will be throwing them into each of those targets while blindfolded, as I am a unicorn I have to obviously state that no magic will be required for this stunt. Coriander and Saffron will be personally handing me each knife I throw so I don’t have to grasp around blindly for them.”

-

“I hope nobody gets hurt.” Coco had enjoyed Rover’s act, he was surprisingly nimble with his paws. It made sense though, one of the things all Diamond Dogs had going for them was that they were good with their paws. Mostly those paws were used for incredibly quick digging, but Rover proved to have a talent for juggling and comedy.

“Things are going to be alright Sheep Wolf. The true danger that was here is quite thoroughly dealt with thanks to Passionate Inferno… hello Sky Child.” The sudden presence of Tree Hugger next to Gilda caused her to shriek and her popcorn to go flying everywhere. Tree Hugger calmly held out more popcorn with a lazy smile, the same kind of popcorn that Gilda had been eating before she just lost most of hers. Gilda just glared at Tree for a moment and took the offered bag of goodness, one that was an obvious peace offering. “You look surprised to see that I am here, did you not hear my performance? Also I announced my presence very clearly to you this time, so it is no fault of my own that you were surprised.”

“How long have you been there?” Suffice it to say that Greta didn’t even see Tree Hugger sit down next to Gilda until she spoke up, one second she just wasn’t there and now she was. Tree Hugger was as creepy as she ever was.

“I’ve been everywhere at some time or another Ever Cheerful, in particular I’ve had this exact seat reserved four days in advance.” The rather laid back Tree Hugger watched as Gilda got back in her seat entirely wary of Tree’s very presence, she still started to eat the popcorn though.

“Boss Lady, how could you do this to me?!” Gilda sent a pointed glare at Rarity who gave her a rather forced smile, the griffon then turned to Tree Hugger who just smiled at her warmly and opened her mouth. Gilda cut her off before she could say anything. “Sky and earth, working together in concert, I know this already!”

“Then I don’t have much to say, my visiting you at this time is of no grave importance.” Tree Hugger intoned before becoming completely quiet.

“Well darling, Lady Tree was quite insistent she wanted that very seat. I didn’t know until today that it would be the one exactly right next to your own.” Rarity turned away from the glare being sent at her by a grumpy popcorn crunching mechanical engineer. “Much less that these were the only seats left for us. Plus I’ve been rather busy as of late what with taking orders for clothing and raising funds , I’ve also spent the last few days raising money for the station and then there was Sassy’s party. I’ve even sold a few EVA suits to the surviving station maintenance crew members… at a slightly reduced price for a limited time only. Speaking of EVA suits, I really need to talk to you and Greta about something later. We’ll get to it when we stop at the asteroid field; we’re quite ready to continue on after the show is over and hopefully these people can recover on their own from here on.”

“You can’t really blame the Boss Lady for that Gilda. Now quiet, Saffron is pretty amazing and she’s on her last knife.” Amazing was quite the understatement in Greta’s opinion, as every target Saffron aimed for was missed entirely and not exactly for the lack of trying to nail them. Instead the knife always bounced off of the target she aimed for and hit another target at an odd angle, after eight knives there was only one target left and there was no way Saffron was going to bounce the knife off that target and then have it still go in afterwards. The mathematics behind that little stunt would have to be astounding and Greta was recording this with her data pad for posterity’s sake. The remaining target was the middle totem and the middle target on it. “I don’t think she can bounce it off the target and hit it again in the same throw.”

“I don’t know about that, Rarity has a good eye for amazing potential and beauty. I think Saffron will do it.” Sassy had always known Rarity to have a great eye for things and the show so far had been spectacular, though it was a little odd that Rarity took on entertainers. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea now that she was watching the Trapeze Troupe in action, even if Saffron wasn’t exactly a full time member. “Saffron is quite nice to look at and she’s also very skilled in the kitchen, I take it she was the one that made the food for my party?”

“Not exactly, Gilda and Greta were the ones to bake the cake. Everything else was actually her father’s work and he’s one of our crew’s chefs. Coriander is a very nice gentle stallion and I hope you give him, Rover and Bernard a chance Sassy.” Their crew was full of interesting oddballs and Coco wouldn’t have it any other way, she felt like the most normal one around and she was a workaholic who didn’t think she was working nearly hard enough. She was even crazy enough to go into the space station during the infestation to aid Rarity and she still felt sore around the barrel from where that tentacle squeezed her.

“I will try not to spit in his general direction then Coco-chan.” There were some things Sassy would struggle with, but at least she was taking baby steps to be amiable towards at least the people Rarity trusted to be around her constantly. Turning towards the griffons, Sassy nodded to them. “Thanks for the cake; it was wonderful after spending so long swimming in medical fluids.”

“Yeah, yeah, sweet stuff, emotions and all that crap.” Gilda was quite tense with Tree Hugger faintly leaning against her; at least it seemed the mare wasn’t invading Gilda’s personal space too hard and she was being oddly silent. It was a few seconds later that she witnessed the last part of Saffron’s act. “Holy crap, that was amazing!”

Greta and Gilda caught every single moment of what the last knife did; Saffron had somehow managed to bounce the last knife off the central target and into the eight other knives before having it return to the remaining target where it sunk in. The only way this was possible was that that targets were all in very differing locations on the totems despite being at the same general heights. There was plenty of applause for it afterwards.

“Thank you, I’ve had very little time to prepare since helping to destroy the monster that was plaguing this station. I apologize for being a little out of practice, but apparently I did good enough to warrant some applause.” Taking off the blindfold Saffron blinked in slight confusion as she looked at all the knives in the targets, the knives were a little off and yet she was receiving so much applause. If only everyone knew that what Saffron had done was entirely unintentional, then they’d be even more mystified at what had happened. “Huh, I guess I’m not so rusty after all. I guess you’re up Trapeze.”

“You put on one really good performance there Saffron, that’s Saffron everyone! She’s quite humble isn’t she?” The mare with the magical top hat cleared her throat and turned to the audience tipping her hat to everyone with a hoof. Trapeze Star was officially up next and her magic act was going to be a blast for her to perform. “Now the moment I’ve been waiting for, it’s time for me to go on! I am Trapeze Star, acrobat and magician and this would be my partner Bernard… Bernard? Okay where could he have gotten to this time?”

Trapeze looked around and after taking off her hat she scratched her head with her hoof, she then started looking to the hat.

“Does everyone want to see a classic trick; you see nothing in this hat correct?” The screen broadcasting the event to everyone watching the stage saw that there was indeed nothing in the hat. “Now is time for me to do the old pull a rabbit out of the hat routine!”

Reaching into her hat with her right hoof Trapeze started grasp around inside it and then slowly she started pushing more and more of her body into the hat, she was soon rooting around in it with both hooves.

“This may take a minute folks!” Trapeze then stuffed the front half of her body into the hat and her rear legs kicked at the air as she slowly sunk into it. Once entirely inside it the hat wiggled around a bit then settled on the stage. As far as disappearing acts go, it was pretty impressive to watch, but Rarity’s crew had already seen such things from the mare enough times to not bat an eye at the sight. It was just better to go with it since Trapeze was quite the talented individual.

The audience was still wondering how she fit her entire body into the top hat. When Bernard came running up to the stage wearing a miniature version of Trapeze’s outfit, he looked adorable in it. The little guy looked about and noticed the audience, he wiggled his nose in a cute manner and then his eyes sharpened as he moved over to the hat. He bowed to the audience and then reached into the hat and pulled Trapeze’s head up and out of with his paw grasping her mane. After that he let go of a Trapeze’s surprised head and held out both his paws to her and exclaimed something appropriate sounding for someone who just completed a magic trick.

“Oh sure, you’re the magician here for pulling me out of a hat.” Deadpanned Trapeze with a flat look on her face as she stared down Bernard, the audience laughed. She propped both her hooves up on the brim of her hat and sat her chin on top of them. “Okay little rabbit. Now that you’ve pulled the magician out of the hat, what’s your next move?”

Bernard reached behind his back and pulled out a pack of cards. Where did they come from, nobody was able to tell as Bernard came onto the stage with empty paws and the pack of cards would logically take up too much space for him to hide in his costume. He tipped his top hat to the audience with a wink.

“Card tricks, that old cliché, really? Folks I have it on good authority that my rabbit is defective, as you all know I’m the one that’s supposed to be leading this act as the magician.” While she addressed the crowd, Trapeze pulled the rest of her body out of the hat while wiggling her rear free of it. She promptly placed it back on her head afterwards. Bernard wasn’t upset to be called a defective rabbit, given he wasn’t one at all. Trapeze turned back to Bernard. “Okay if you think you have a good trick to show us then… you built a house of cards, really? That’s the trick.”

Everyone had been paying too much attention to Trapeze’s wiggling flank as she pulled herself from the hat to notice what Bernard was up to. Turning to him everyone saw a perfect house of cards with him leaning again it, obviously putting his full weight on it without it falling over or collapsing. He held up a paw and waved it in a condescending manner, apparently he wasn’t done with his trick yet.

“I for one am interested to see what other sleight of hooves they’re going to pull next.” It wasn’t often that Rarity missed a detail, but she had missed Bernard putting up a card house in a ridiculously short amount of time.

Bernard waggled his eyebrows at the audience and with a flick of his paw, he took a card from the bottom edge of the stacked cards and surprisingly the house didn’t fall apart. He held up the card to Trapeze and she took it from him. He motioned to the audience and waited.

“Apparently my partner wants me to tell you as much as show you what card this is, for the record it’s the queen of hearts.” Trapeze showed it clearly to the audience, Bernard nodded and took the card back and slid the card into the middle of the house of cards gently.

Everyone was beginning to wonder where this was going, Bernard walked away from the house of cards a few feet and then started running towards it. He rolled right into the card house, he knocked some cards down and sent others flying up into the air. He came out of his tumble holding a card up to everyone.

“The joker card, I don’t understand what’s the trick in all this?” Trapeze had a curious look on her face as Bernard pointed behind himself and everyone looked to see four separate cluster of cards all separated by suit landing face up. It was amazing that they were all face up and none of the suits were mixed with one another after Bernard slammed through the card house. More interestingly the queen of hearts was right where the card house used to stand.

“Oh the queen only fell straight down despite the fact that you barreled through the card house, interesting enough and I like how you managed to get them all to separate into their individual suits.” Now tapping her hoof against the floor of the stage Trapeze had to ask. “Now why are you showing me the joker card?”

Bernard reached up to the card and flicked it with other his paw causing it bend forward far enough that the picture on the cards face was hidden by the back of the card to the audience and Trapeze. Upon the card springing back up in a grinning Bernard’s paw, it was the queen of hearts and everyone turned their gazes to the joker now lying where the queen of hearts used to be and were entirely flummoxed.

“Okay that was actually pretty impressive, given how many eyes you have on you at the moment. I guess my partner is actually the magician here folks… wait, does that make me the rabbit then? Well I guess I have to be the one that gets paid in carrots now, give my partner some applause for performing his trick for you. Also I would like to make a random statement that jokers are always wild.” The audience chuckled and the applause was quite warm as Trapeze had expected. Bernard bowed to everyone before waving to them all and then he set about picking up the cards. “Right then, on to the next trick while my partner cleans up his small mess. Coriander if you will bring up my magical hoops, I can really start to astound these people instead of letting my partner do parlor tricks for the rest of this event. You’re about to see a mare saw herself into pieces, only I don’t use a saw as that would definitely hurt! I still have more acts to perform, so I'll do the safe for foals version.”

What followed was an hour of the most incredible stunts and acrobatics ever devised, in short the magical hoops were several interlocked metal rings the size of pony made hula hoops. Pulling them apart wasn’t the trick, what was the trick was Trapeze pulling herself apart while doing so and having at least one of any three limbs sticking out of any of the separated hoops without revealing how they were detached.

From there Trapeze proceeded to do several bizarre things, magical acrobatics involving moving each ring. She twirled them, threw them into the air and even balanced them on top of one another while spinning in opposite direction and was performing acrobatics with her limbs seemingly attaching and detaching at random, leaving her hooves sticking out from behind the edges of the metal rings. It almost looked like she never lost her limbs as she reached into one ring, her hoof would come out of another one several feet away, it was incredible to watch when she started to do acrobatic tricks of leaping from ring to ring. She’d grabbed a ring and swirled it over her head to disappear as the ring passed over her body, then she’d be seen flipping out of another one with a dazzling twirl to land on her hooves.

After she was done with the rings, Trapeze moved on to playing jump rope with a line of handkerchiefs she pulled from one of her ears. She also did some ribbon dancing with said handkerchiefs after she was done playing jump rope, then she moved on to performing many small tricks by pulling out various props.

Bernard kept up with Trapeze the entire time, sometimes he helped Trapeze and other times he got in front of her trying to humorously steal the show by performing his own feats of acrobatics and magic. It was getting to the point that nobody knew who to watch more or what they were missing when the other was doing something, the goal of distracting the audience was working pretty well.

It was soon for Trapeze’s final trick, which took quite a bit of setup and the audience was all for being patient just to see what the two performers would do this time with all the stuff they got out. Said setup involved three gymnastic bars with a small trapeze hanging under the middle one which was the highest up gymnastic bar, a ten foot pole, an empty child sized inflatable pool, four feet of metal chain, a see saw, a barrel of water, a whip, a tarp big enough to cover half the stuff with and one single solitary banana cream pie which wasn’t thrown or smashed into someone’s face. In fact the use of the banana cream pie was just one of the more unusual things about the whole performance.

-

“I laughed, I cried, I was totally amazed by most of that last trick and the only thing that truly upset me is what happened to her poor costume.” It was plain that Sassy enjoyed the show and she had nothing but praises to sing for Trapeze Star’s performance. She was wheeled back to the Caravel Boutique after they stopped to help Babs pack up whatever belongings the filly wanted from her home on the station, which was everything and anything they could feasibly take with them.

“I agree, I will need to take care of her wardrobe and clean her costume when I get the soonest opportunity to do so. That or make an entirely new costume… why I can even make a whole line of them.” Ideas had just struck Rarity and she was glad to have Trapeze on board; she was a mare with a lot of pizzazz. “She certainly has quite a lot of flair and style; she never seemed to have faltered out there even once while performing.”

“You think that was difficult, just that small routine? If that’s what you think, I need to get more complicated next time!” Taking a pose where she tilted her hat over her eyes Trapeze gave a proud smile. “I think I did an okay enough job out there, nothing more distracting than trying to figure out a how a magician did all those things. The SNUGGLES people and all the outside help will take care of things now.”

“It was distracting enough that you were an earth pony doing all that. I’ve been making preparations Rarity and we’re ready to head out for the Pie Planetoid Plantations and the thoroughfare station.” Everyone was already on board according to Opal and she double checked to make sure Vera was present, triple checked for Chrysalis who was quietly in the middle of her hobby in her room. Last, but not least in any sense of the word, she checked that their guests Ember and Mr. Spew were still onboard without telling Rarity. “We can leave whenever you’re ready to set out Rarity.”

“Do me a favor Opal. Make sure the shields are up and the turrets are powered before we arrive as a precaution. Patch me into ship wide communications… okay everyone we are now setting out for the Pie Planetoid Plantations.” That was all Rarity needed to say to get the ball rolling, she then noticed something. Ember’s ship was still here. “Get some rest everyone.”

-

“Ember, is there a reason you haven’t disembarked to go do your own thing?” The sound of Rarity’s voice made the dragon jump; one had to wonder what could spook a dragon as strong as her that badly. The reaction she saw reminded Rarity that Ember was a bit socially inept despite her incredible prowess as a Bounty Hunter. Ember looked so adorable poking her claws together with Mr. Spew sitting on her shoulder and she started giving Rarity a pleading look. “Is something the matter dear?”

“I was wondering if I could stick around for a while... I want to make sure Babs gets to where she’s going safely.” Every part of Ember was fidgeting slightly as if she knew what she was saying had some problems with it, also her wings needed to be stretched out a bit. Yeah that was it, her wings needed to be stretched out.

“Well of course you can stay around for a while, as long as you need really.” Ever the generous pony that Rarity was, she wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a friend stick around longer. “I can even get Opal to set you up with a room somewhere on deck two.”

“I would like that.” A suddenly emotional Ember almost seemed too excited at the prospect, given her tail started wagging like crazy and she perked up immensely. That stopped after Ember thought about it and her eyes narrowed at Rarity, she suddenly became rather demanding a most unusual way. Some would outright take advantage of free room and food, Princess Ember McFlame was not one such being. “I am not going to be a freeloader Rarity; I will pay for room and board on this ship. I eat expensively and my ship is taking up space in the hangar, not to mention I need to take care of Mr. Spew’s needs.”

Mr. Spew just gurgled from his position on Ember’s shoulder, not feeling particularly energetic at the moment as he lazily relaxed upon his kingly throne of Ember’s shoulder. He could feel Ember’s heart beat speeding up. Sure his trusty mount was panicking, but there was no danger or ill intent to upchuck all over with deadly concoctions. Like his companion he could spew searing fires, he taught himself how to after watching Ember do it enough times when it came to cooking some meat or vegetables.

“Well okay then, but are you sure? I heard dragons don’t tend to spend their hoards or funds very often.” Rarity said trying to see how insistent Ember could be, she had heard dragons were quite stingy and tended to sleep on piles of gold and jewels.

“Rarity, you have no idea how much I would give to make you happy… er as my friend… make you happy as a good friend!” It wasn’t apparent, but Ember was afraid to tell Rarity what her hoard really was and it wasn’t her bank account which was doing moderately well. At least she had enough to make sure she wasn’t going hungry in the next three months. She unfortunately couldn’t be nearly as charitable as Rarity was in helping the people of Antilur Station. “You and your crew are becoming like a family to me and you’re my best friend. I mean you accepted me as a friend, despite the entire I kill or violently capture monsters and or people for a living thing.”

The longer Rarity allowed Ember to stick around, the more likely it would be discovered as to what Ember’s hoard actually was. Ember would never be able to spend her hoard given it wasn’t gold and jewels; she was willing to protect it jealously and with her life is necessary. Her Hoard was Rarity and her friends, with Rarity being the most prized possession of her whole hoard, the very centerpiece of it even. Never had Ember been so afraid of rejection in all her life, a centerpiece is what a dragon was most proud of when it comes to their hoard and she had figured she chose wisely to make it her friendship with Rarity.

“Well as long as you are sure. I don’t have a problem with you paying me a fairly modest sum for allowing you to stick around.” Rarity suddenly received a pair of glaring dragon eyes in her face, Ember certainly seemed sure of it and it didn’t look like Rarity would dissuade her of it. “I would have let you stay for free, you know.”

“I know, but I’m not going to stay here on your generosity alone, I actually want to earn my keep around here just like anyone else on your crew.” What Ember wasn’t saying was that she wanted to outright join the crew and Rarity was giving her a scrutinizing gaze making her feel a bit uncomfortable. There were a lot of emotions fluttering around in her head and it made the dragon feel anxious.

“Do you mean that you wish to join my crew, well then why didn’t you say so? I can easily work up a contract and find something for you to do.” It confused Rarity that Ember wanted to be like anyone else on the crew, yet not part of the crew itself.

“I… don’t want to become too attached… I mean to your crew that is. No offense meant to you Rarity, I just want to remain somewhat autonomous so that I can do some things without the rest of you getting in trouble for it.” That was quite a bitter lie the moment Ember spoke it, she had already declared them her hoard. The problem with this was that Ember couldn’t be a part of her own hoard and she was definitely attached to them now. How would a dragon even go about hoarding themselves anyway? That was too ludicrous to even think of. The things Ember wouldn’t do for any of Rarity’s friends now would make for very tiny list, given Rarity is the centerpiece of her hoard that list almost didn’t exist where she was concerned with a few very exceptions that are highly unlikely to happen. When would Rarity ever want to kill Spike or her dad anyway? Ponies weren’t very open to conflict in the first place; well Rarity was willing to wade into just about any dangerous situation to risk her life helping others and even more so for friends. Ember wouldn’t have liked Rarity nearly as much as she did if that weren’t the case. “You know, I have a history and I’m a horrible...”

Ember felt a pair of fluffy hooves wrapping around her neck, they pulled her gently into a hug. She received a friendly nuzzle to her cheek, after which Rarity pulled away and smiled. Blushing Ember looked away from her friend, as she had almost spread her wings and unleashed a blast of fire into the air while giving a mighty roar right then and there. She held back on that instinct as she didn’t think Rarity would understand what that particular gesture meant to a dragon, especially in this context.

Author's Note:

I am a firm believer of noodle incidents not always having a negative connotations.

Comments

[Razzy]

"That trick was great, but now we have to rebuild the station. Again."

Not much to say here ,Ember should really come clean at some point or she'll blow up .

'with only had eight hours of sleep' - remove had

'Waving a hoof the mare’s direction Trapeze' - Waving a hoof in the mare's direction, Trapeze

'ago in advanced' - in advance

'was still to wondering' - remove to

'promptly placed on it back on her head' - promptly placed it back on her head

'safe for foal's version' - foals

'any of the separated hoop without' hoops

'detaching at random leaving her hooves sticking out from behind the edge of metal rings at random' - detaching at random, leaving her hooves sticking out from behind the edges of random metal rings

'Many idea’s' - ideas

'more distracting then trying to figure out a how' - more distracting than trying to figure out how